yet another "carpet" thread

[George P.]

i hate talking about carpets in rentals. it gets my blood boiling. i hate shopping for carpet. It's like buying a mattress - if you dont know anything about it, you are getting screwed over. i hate dealing with tenants about the carpet during their move out process....

installed a new carpet last year. now they are moving out and the carpet is stained (not spills, but like they never took their shoes off). most likely it was a cheap carpet, but what do i know?

i want to charge them $100 to clean it and they think it's "normal wear and tear". what's so normal about having the carpet dark in the areas where furniture was not present?

i do NOT get tenants.... how can they have splatters and fingerprints on the walls? i lived in apts before. never did i touch the wall with nasty fingers while putting my shoes. they know they have to leave it the way they found it. of course they would not install a new carpet, but at least take care of the brand new stuff i gave you!!

and those are college graduates with masters (graduated years ago) that make over 150k per year.

what do you do with "normal wear and tear". i am tired of spending 1k for carpet every time a tenant moves out.

[Patrick G.]

Originally posted by George P.:

if you dont know anything about it, you are getting screwed over.

Carpet 101

FIBER
Nylon Carpets wear well but they are easy to stain. Think of a radish, the color is on the outside, but the inside is clear/white. Once the stain sets into the middle it is never coming out.
Polyester Carpets do not wear as well as Nylon, however they are harder to stain. Think of a carrot. Theoretically you can always scrub the stain out. Polyester is also softer to the touch, it feels nicer. Lastly all carpet will pill (where strands of the fiber shed from the carpet) when they are new, but polyester will do that much more. New polyester carpet should be vacuumed a good bit.
Olefin - Mainly used in berber carpets. If you pull a loop of berber it runs the whole length of the carpet. I never recommend for a rental. Olefin is hard to stain like polyester. The loops in berbers make wear less noticable.

CONSTRUCTION
If you turn the back of a Home Depot (and others?) carpet sample over there are three other carpet characteristics you should pay attention to:
Density: How many fibers are in a square yard of the carpet. The higher the better. More fiber hold up to wear better. With a very hard density it will be hard to stick your finger into the carpet and get to the backing
Twist: How wound up the carpet fibers are (revolutions per inch of fiber). The higher the better. When a fiber becomes unwound it is less able to resist wear. If you look close at a fiber you can count the revolutions.
Length/height: How tall the carpet is. Have to pick a good middle ground. The lower it is , the more it will resist wear (think of hotel lobby carpet) However we all want nice plush carpet to walk on.

I hope that helps.

Overall I recommend a nice cheap in-stock Beige Polyester!
Feels nice, and cleans easier.